FIA investigating ‘potential’ F1 cost cap breaches as paddock rumours swirl at Mexico GP

The FIA has yet to announce the outcome of the submissions made by the 10 Formula 1 teams earlier this year regarding their compliance with budget rules during the 2024 season

The FIA is said to be probing “potential breaches by more than one team” of the Formula 1 cost cap. The governing body has yet to reveal the results from the submissions made by the 10 teams earlier this year regarding their compliance with budget rules during the 2024 season.

Since 2021, teams have had to adhere to a budget limit restricting most areas of their operations in terms of spending. For the 2024 season, the cap was set at around £124million. This does not cover some key areas of expenditure, such as driver salaries and marketing spend.

Every team on the grid was found to be compliant across the 2022 and 2023 campaigns. The FIA confirmed that in early-to-mid September in the year after each season had finished but, as we approach late October there has been no such announcement from the governing body yet regarding the teams’ 2024 results.

Teams submitted their own reviews of their cost cap spending by the March 31 deadline. FIA analysts have since been scrutinising the details to ensure they are satisfied with the compliance of each team. The delay in announcing the results has raised suspicions of a possible breach.

The Race reports sources suggesting “potential breaches by more than one team are being probed”. None of the teams potentially under investigation have been named and there currently no concrete evidence that any of the 10 teams failed to comply with cost cap rules in the 2024 season.

An FIA spokesperson has revealed that the governing body is “finalising the review of the 2024 submissions” and hinted that the final outcome will be “communicated shortly”. They added: “The results of the review will be made public once assessment of all submissions are completed and finalised.”

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Since the rules were enforced, the only cost cap breaches have all been from the 2021 season. Williams self-reported a procedural breach and were slapped with a relatively nominal fine.

Aston Martin were hit with a more significant fee after they too were found to have committed a procedural breach, shelling out around £335,000.

Red Bull were the only team found to have overspent. They were slapped with a hefty £6million fine and a sporting penalty which saw them lose 10 percent of their allotted wind tunnel time over a 12-month period, having eventually admitted to a “minor” overspend of less than five percent of the cap.

These are the precedents that the FIA are sure to consider if it turns out that one or more teams breached the cost cap rules in the 2024 season.